Saturday, August 31, 2013

Homemade Salsa and Life Updates

As the 2013 UGA football season kicks off today I thought it would be appropriate to share a yummy homemade salsa recipe! Salsa is a staple in The Etheridge household during football season, and honestly all year round. When we were in Del Rio we were lucky enough to just be able to pop on over to HEB and grab some of that yummy goodness that is known as Julio's. Seriously, if you are ever in Del Rio (for whatever who knows what reason that may be) or even in south-west Texas you can get your own at the local HEB. It's pretty much life changing.

Anyways, since we aren't able to have Julio's to get us through this football season, or probably any in the very near future, the hubs and I decided to make some from scratch. After eating real Mexican salsa for almost two years the stuff in a jar from the grocery store just doesn't do it for us any longer. So the search for a fresh, homemade, recipe began. After much research it seemed that most of the recipes I found were pretty much exactly the same. We did multiple taste tests throughout the process and came up with this scrumptious concoction! The hubs is convinced it's the best salsa he's ever had, but I'll let you guys be the judge of that.

Homemade Salsa
3 Tomatoes, skinned and chopped
1.5 Cloves of Garlic
1/5 Cup Cilantro, chopped
1-2 JalapeƱo, chopped
1/3 White Onion, diced
1/3 4oz. can of Green Chilis
1/4 tsp. Garlic Salt
1/4 tsp. Pepper
1/2 tsp. Salt
1-1/2 tsp. Crushed Red Pepper
1.5 Tbsp. Lemon
Hot Sauce (to taste, we used about 2 Tbsp.)

Directions
Place all ingredients in food processor and pulse until well combined and 
desired constancy is reached.




In other news, August was a pretty laid back month for me but not so much for the hubs. The AF sent him to Arizona for a few weeks to learn to fly one of those fancy jets. This was his first real taste of flying a fighter, and to say he throughly enjoyed himself would be an understatement I believe. I was super bummed I wasn't allowed to accompany him on this trip, as I know some wives have in the past, but I was lucky enough to be able to head home for a little while and enjoy the comforts of Georgia. My in-laws were so sweet and housed me for a good while which I was so thankful for! Here are some photos that summed up our time apart this past month...

My stud of a husband.

Winston loves to steal daddy's spot
on the bed while he's away.

Caught red-handed snoozing on the couch
(and watching TV?).

I swung by and grabbed these while I was home.
So excited to go with Mitchell's family in October!

Beautiful flowers from my sweet husband!

No road trip to and from home is complete
without a chicken, egg, and cheese biscuit.
If you've never had one, do it, you won't regret it.

Love,
The Etheridges

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Life In Florida

Now that all the unpacking and settling in here in Florida has died down, I've finally had some time to update the blog! The two weeks that the hubs had off between his trainings went by incredibly fast and were spent with family and friends both here in Florida and Georgia. We were lucky enough to be able to go home for a short visit before he headed off again for more training. It's been YEARS since we have been able to drive home in order to partake in family events such as the yearly trip to the lake. I was able to go last year after my sister-in-laws wedding for a girls weekend, but the hubs hasn't been in a very long time! Needless to say we enjoyed ourselves immensely and loved catching up with everyone.

Love this place.

The cousins!
This was our first time driving home from Florida so it was fun to enjoy the new road we will be taking every time we get the chance to head that way. I had almost forgotten how much I love Georgia backroads and how beautiful they are, no matter the time of year. I loved seeing fresh peach stands, waffle houses, and passing through incredibly old southern towns many of which have roots dating back to before the Civil War. It's a great feeling to be back in a place that seems so familiar and to be able to plant roots in the south again even if it's not forever.

If you had ever heard me talk about missing home you know
I sure did miss TREES!! I wanted to go and hug each and
every pine tree I saw when we got back home.
This sign made my heart happy.
We also spent some time here in Florida exploring our new home and taking in some of the surrounding sights. This place is gorgeous and I can't get over how different each and every base experience seems to be. Don't get me wrong, I find myself missing Laughlin each and every day for one thing or another, but I also feel incredibly blessed that God sent us here for the next chapter of our military adventure.

Cinnamon Roll bread we made!

First day on the beach together...with boiled
peanuts of course.


The small lake on base near our home! 


Love,
The Etheridges